WAR DEBTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 August 1922, Page 3

WAR DEBTS.

CABLE NEWS.

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. DANGER OF COLLAPSE. (Received this day at 9.60 a.m.) LONDON, August 16. Mr Clynes, addressing the conference of the general workers union, said the collapse of the latest international conference was lamentable and serious. Reparations could only be exacted in so far as Germany was prosperous, free

from the threat of economic punishment and political disruption. England f must not any longer support a policy spelling the economic ruin of Germany. Where the Supreme Council failed, the League of Nations with Germany as a member should be called on to try new settlement plans. If the League reached no agreement, America should be asked to arbitrate. France suffered greatly from the devastation of property, but Britain could not longer await redress from the dislocation of trade and the burden of unemployment. France’s prosperity would be made more secure by the other nations goodwill, than by using or carrying out threats of force.

FRENCH INTENTIONS. (Received this day at 10.15 a.m.) LONDON, Aug 17. The “Daily Mail’s” Paris correspondent states the next step in Reparations discussions will be a meeting of tlie Reparations Commission, which will consider the moratorium. It is stated' M. Poincare has a definite assurance that Belgium will vote against the moratorium. In the improbable case of Belgium voting against France, M. Aubois, the French representative,, is instructed to resign. A deadlock therefore appears most likely. When the Commission has finished its discussion, M. Poincare will disclose France’s plans for independent action, which are approved by Cabinet and are understood include the seizure of all German taxes revenue the occupied territory, held by French troops, the sequestration of Ruhr mines and oertain state forests. Meanwhile advices from Strasburg state as a reprisal against Alsace expulsions, the German authorities at Karlsruhe refused to visa five thousand passports of Frenchmen wishing to visit Germany. German banka are also refusing cheques sent from Alsace.